World News - US admits Iraq is terror 'cause' Report says that 11,000 attacks worldwide shows the war has become driving factor for extremists

THREE years after its invasion of Iraq the US Administration acknowledged yesterday that the war has become “a cause” for Islamic extremists worldwide and there is a risk of the country becoming a safe haven for terrorists hoping to launch fresh attacks on America. According to CIA data released yesterday, there were 11,111 terrorist incidents last year, killing more than 14,600 non-combatants, including 8,300 in Iraq. Of the 56 American civilians killed by terrorists in 2005, some 47 of them were in Iraq. The figures in the State Department’s annual report on terror represented a fourfold rise compared with 2004, partly because it has adopted a broader definition of such incidents since having to withdraw data used two years ago on the ground that it was grossly understated. Officials conceded yesterday that the rising violence in Iraq was a factor in last year’s figures, saying that fatalities from terrorism there had “probably doubled”. ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk

Sources say the FBI is investigating whether a defense contractor provided prostitutes, limos and hotel suites to a lawmaker who has been convicted of bribery. One federal official said investigators have contacted Washington-area escort services, two hotels and a limousine company in recent weeks. The allegations against defense contractor Brent Wilkes were raised by another defense contractor, Mitchell Wade. Wade has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the bribery conspiracy involving former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Wade is cooperating with investigators as part of his plea agreement. The sources say he has told the investigators that Wilkes secured prostitutes, limousines and suites at two Washington hotels for Cunningham. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/29/politics/main1561559.shtml?source=RSS&attr=U.S._1561559

Newly returned Nepalese legislators demanded Saturday that King Gyanendra be stripped of control over the 90,000-strong army, fearing he could use it to regain power after his recent concession to weeks of pro-democracy protests. Nepal's constitution gives the monarch supreme command of the army, and Gyanendra's seizure of power in February 2005 included sending soldiers to arrest opposition politicians, censor the media and guard his palace. Legislators said Saturday the king must lose control over the army when the constitution is rewritten by a special assembly. Elections for the assembly were proposed Friday by lawmakers meeting for the first time in four years. "It is the prime minister who should be the supreme commander of the army and not the king. The existing laws should be amended immediately, and that is what we are going to do," Shivraj Basnet, a lawmaker from Nepali Congress, the country's largest party, said Saturday. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1904748&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said, as six more Iraqis were killed in scattered violence on Saturday.Adil Abdul-Mahdi, one of the country’s two vice presidents, told reporters in the southern city of Najaf that 90 percent of the displaced were Shiites like himself and the rest were Sunnis, the minority that held sway under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.Other estimates of the number of displaced families have been lower. Dr. Salah Abdul-Razzaq, spokesman of the Shiite Endowment, a government body that runs Shiite religious institutions, put the number of displaced families at 13,750 nationwide, or about 90,000 people.That includes 25,000 Iraqis who have fled their homes since the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra on Feb. 22 triggered a wave of attacks on Sunni mosques and clerics....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12543478/from/RSS/

The U.S. military has only seen "loss, disaster and misfortune" in Iraq, al-Qaida's No. 2 said, in a video message that a U.S. official deemed part of a propaganda campaign to demonstrate the terror network's relevancy. The video by Ayman al-Zawahri, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum Saturday, came within the same week as an audiotape by Osama bin Laden and a video by the head of al-Qaida's branch in Iraq a volley of messages by the group's most prominent figures. Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian militant believed to be hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan, also denounced the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq as "traitors" and called on Muslims to rise up to "confront them." He said that U.S. and British forces in Iraq had bogged down in Iraq and "have achieved nothing but loss, disaster and misfortune." ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1904638&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

A day after the military announced that April was the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq this year, thousands of anti-war demonstrators converged on lower Manhattan on Saturday to call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from that country. Organizers said they expected the marchers would include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, film director Jonathan Demme and Cindy Sheehan, the vocal war opponent whose 24-year-old son was killed in Iraq. "The Bush administration hopes to defuse pressure at home and in Iraq to end its occupation by bringing a portion of the troops home (maybe)," organizer Leslie Cagan said in a statement. "But withdrawing some troops is completely unacceptable." The Police Department said it was closing streets in lower Manhattan in anticipation of thousands of marchers. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1904705&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312